


I Hate You

by adventurerofthewrittenworld



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Light Angst, some good old sexual tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25142266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adventurerofthewrittenworld/pseuds/adventurerofthewrittenworld
Summary: Cardan is angry at Jude for betraying him, but angrier at himself for falling for her deceit. Jude is furious at herself for letting herself feel something for someone she knows she cannot have.
Relationships: Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	I Hate You

“What is it?” Her voice came out too weary sounding. She tried not to sigh. Cardan stood in the threshold of her bedroom, crossing his arms as he studied her. Anger lanced through him as he watched her. 

“Why, Jude?” He straightened off the wall and advanced towards her. “Being King is harder than you thought?”

Jude grit her teeth, “If you’re only here to waste my time, then leave.” 

“Isn’t this what you wanted? For me to be King, for you to control my every move?” He gave a bitter laugh. “You should be pleased. Everything worked out exactly how you wanted it to.”

Jude felt a burning in her throat, but she swallowed it and looked away from his gaze. It was intense, pinning her to the spot. 

“What I wanted?” Now it was her turn to laugh. “I wanted you to be King, to act like one and run this damn kingdom.”

“After I told you I never wanted the crown,” he hissed. The words were angry, hateful. Cardan hated her for leading him to think she could be trusted. For taking that trust—his oath—and betraying him. He should have expected it. He should never have made the mistake of trusting her. He hated himself for it. 

His voice was rough as he repeated, “After I told you it was the last thing I ever wanted.”

She ignored him. “And what have you done except make my life miserable, Cardan? What have you done but sit on your ass and humiliate me at every opportunity?”

“You deserve it,” he said, voice low. 

She was seething. Good. He was angry too. 

“Did you actually believe, for even one moment, that you could trust me, Cardan?” The words land with a blow. He had been foolish for trusting her, for thinking he could believe her. For that, he deserved her betrayal. 

Jude feels anger prick her eyes with tears, but they don’t fall. She’s angry because she’s not talking about him, not really. She’s talking about herself, because for a moment there, she let herself love him and she let that get in the way of what she needed to do. She needed to put him on the throne, and because for a moment, she had trusted him, had loved him, she hates him. Because she is not supposed to love Cardan. Because he hates her and she hates him and because he was cruel to her and because he is twisted and wrong for her in every way.  
And because in her heart, she knows love is a weakness. This type of mad love—where you are willing to die, to bend rules, to make exceptions and sacrifices—this type of love is dangerous for someone like her. 

Because her work does not allow for mistakes or clouded judgement or slip ups. 

“I hate you,” she breathes, and she can’t tell anymore if it’s the truth or just another lie that she’s letting fall from her lips. With Cardan, it had always been confusing. The line between hate and love blurred. But Jude continues, “I hate you, and I will always hate you, and you hate me, and we will never make peace with one another.”

She searches his eyes, but they are not on her own. 

They are fixed on her lips, on the cruel curve of her mouth as she tells him she hates him. Jude feels her breathing speed up. That anger that had pulsed inside her is quickly turning into something else, something just as fervent and wild. 

Cardan’s breathing has become uneven too. He’s looking at her like he can’t get enough of her, like he’s committing her face to memory, like if he looks away, she’ll disappear from his sight forever. 

She smirks, even as her heart ratchets inside her chest at the heated look in his eyes.

And then Cardan steps closer, so that there is almost no distance between them now. He tips her chin up with a hand, his eyes dark and furious, and right before he finally kisses her, he breathes, “I hate you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @mydarlingrhys on tumblr


End file.
